Tsarnaev note allegedly explains motive for bombing

May 17, 2013
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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who has been charged with the Boston bombings, reportedly left a note scribbled on the wall of a boat where he was captured. It said he would not miss his brother, Tamerlan, right, because he was already a martyr in paradise and Dzhokhar would join him soon. Tamerlan was killed during a shootout with police in Watertown, Mass., on April 18. / AP

by Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

by Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

While hiding in a boat before his capture last month, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man later charged in the Boston Marathon bombings, allegedly scrawled a message on an inside wall of the vessel in which he claimed responsibility for the attacks, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, said the message suggested the attacks were mounted in response to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Written while the suspect lay seriously wounded, the note appeared to resemble a deathbed declaration, possibly prepared should he not survive the intense manhunt, the official said.

In the note, the 19-year-old suspect allegedly referred to his brother, Tamerlan, as a martyr and wrote that he hoped for the same recognition for himself.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in an encounter with police three days after the bombings April 15 that killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, bleeding from the neck and other wounds, was captured April 19 by authorities while hiding in the boat parked in the driveway of a Watertown, Mass., home near Boston.

The owner alerted police to the location after finding blood on the outside of the boat.

The contents of the note track with information Tsarnaev allegedly provided to investigators in interviews shortly after his capture.

Tsarnaev is being held at a prison medical center outside Boston where he is recovering from injuries he suffered before his capture. He has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and if convicted could face the death penalty.